Arrests in City Schools Affect Mostly Black Students

School-safety officers at the city’s middle and high schools made 63 arrests during a 43-day period last spring, and more than two-thirds of those arrested were African-American students, according to statistics released Monday by the New York Police Department.

The newly released statistics cover the period from April 1 through June 30 — a span that includes some summer school — and detail summonses as well as arrests in the school system.

The racial breakdown, provided only for arrests, showed that 68% of the students arrested by school-safety officers were African-American and about 25% were Hispanic. Caucasian students comprised about 3% of those arrested.

Fifty-two of the students arrested were male, or 82.5%, compared to 11 female students. Police did not provide details on the charges faced by those arrested.

Critics saw the racial disparity as evidence of problems with the NYPD’s school-safety program. “The data raise concerns about black students being disproportionately arrested in the city’s schools,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.